These are key lime, you see. The very best of summer citrus condensed into a buttery, decadent cookie. Regular snowballs, move over. It’s time for a warm-weather makeover!

Well, that’s assuming we get any warm weather soon. It’s been raining for like 17 straight days. Why did nobody warn me about DC being moved across the country to Seattle?

Last week, somebody made a comment on FB about how people get really whiny about rain and how it’s no big deal. I’m guessing that this person’s mood is not at the mercy of the elements, and I’m jealous. I really need sunshine to feel happy.

Also, it’s apparently good for my bones to get lots of Vitamin D, which is easier when the sun’s out. No, no, I’m not advocating sun worship of any kind. Protect your skin with sunscreen, always!

The downside of that is, of course, less natural exposure to Vitamin D. For some people that’s no big deal, but I recently failed a bone density test with flying colors. I’ve been very good with the sunscreen, but not so great with the calcium.

So here I am, loyal readers, asking you for tips. I’m not much of a dairy person, which I realize is a problem. I don’t like yogurt (unless it’s frozen) and I could never eat enough cheese to make it worthwhile to my bones. So what else can I eat? I hear kale is good, and spinach. Give me some recipes or ideas! No beans, please. I’m picky.

In the meantime, I’m all good on the cookie front. I get plenty of cookies. If only they had calcium!

I’m a snowball girl through and through. These are easily my favorite kind of cookie. The texture gets me every time. It’s because the dough (egg-free, so you can eat as you work!) is made with powdered sugar instead of granulated, so these have the most melt-in-your-mouth, velvety feel.

To spice things up, I added in a little bit of lime juice and a lot of lime zest. The zest is in both the cookie dough and in the powdered sugar that the cookies get rolled in. I wanted to find key limes (and I still will, thus the title of this post), but all I could get for this baking day were the regular kind. Either way, it’ll taste amazing!

It’s rainy out and I want some awesome, sunshiny calcium. Help a girl out!

Well, I do. This pink lemonade version has taken my favorite winter cookie and morphed it right into summer where it belongs. It’s pink and cute and ridiculously tasty. Those are all fantastic reasons to eat a cookie!

Another reason to eat a pink lemonade cookie? Lemon is a summer flavor. In fact, as you’re reading this, I’m at the beach with my buddy getting some girl time. And you can bet your patootie that we’ll be getting some fresh-squeezed lemonade on the boardwalk!

I didn’t grow up near the beach, so it’s still a wonder to me. Nope, I grew up in landlocked Indianapolis, where the closest thing to a beach is Lake Michigan. The first time I stepped foot on the Eastern Shore and onto the boardwalk, I was transported to a whole world I’d never even known about. It was nothing short of magical.

Let’s not even get into the fact that they deep-fry everything on the boardwalk, from Oreos to Reese’s peanut butter cups. Let’s not even talk about the soft-serve, or big pretzels, or popcorn, or fudge, that is literally every two steps. Heck, I’m not even going to talk about the smell of Thrasher’s fries permeating the air as people stroll around with buckets and take in the scenery.

The point is, the beach smells like food. Delicious food. And salt air. And sunscreen. It’s like every amazing summer smell is packed into one area, and everyone is pretty much in swimsuits and flip-flops. In the evenings, people put on light breezy outfits and hit the bars or restaurants. We’re all at a party together and even though nobody knows anybody else a lot of the time, the air is friendly and happy. Except for parking issues, nobody seems to get that upset at the beach.

Every summer, I log in a fair amount of beach time. The beach always seems to be the place where the world ends and forever begins. All that water, stretching out past the horizon. But don’t go that far in because there are sharks everywhere this year. I love swimming, but not sharks. So I’ll get my beach time, and if I have to swim? #swimmingpool

These cookies are beyond addictive, so let that be fair warning. If you’ve never had a snowball, they’re light and fluffy, based in powdered sugar. That makes the dough crumbly and melt-in-your-mouth amazing. The problem is, it’s way too easy to shove several into your mouth and not share with anyone else.

Snowballs might be a winter thing, but that’s all changed now. Pink lemonade is a summer delight, and so is the beach. Now, so are snowballs. Get your inner beach bum out and cookie it up!